City & Corporate: Pernod Ricard win takes Finsbury to top position

Despite having worked on just 12 deals in July, compared with FD's 30 in
June, Finsbury's chunkier projects gave it the same total deal value, at
£11.7bn.

The agency worked for Pernod Ricard on its £7.4bn bid for Allied
Domecq, which closed last month, and was boosted by British Land's
acquisition of Pillar Property for £811m.

The Allied Domecq deal also saw Cardew Group and College Hill Associates
make it into the top ten. The former agency, which came fifth, is
retained adviser to Allied Domecq, while the latter counselled Pernod
Ricard buyout vehicle Goal Acquisitions.

Citigate Dewe Rogerson held on to second place, having advised Yell
Group on its £910m acquisition of phonebook rival TransWestern
Holdings. New table entries included Gainsborough Communications, which
came eighth after working with Doughty Hanson on the VC firm's sale of
Priory Group to ABN Amro.

Meanwhile, M: Communications, which did not work on any of July's top 20
deals by value, came in at tenth.

The table's only other climber was The Maitland Consultancy, which moved
from seventh place in June to sixth. Last month Maitland and Brunswick -
which fell from third to fourth place - advised global brewing giant
SABMiller on its £4.4bn purchase of Grupo Empresarial Bavaria
SA.

The month's biggest faller was FD, which slipped from first place after
only managing less than half of the total deal value it had worked on in
June.

But the agency still managed seventh position, its largest deal being
T&F Informa's £768m acquisition of IIR Holdings.